Engadget evaluates Razer Blade performance

Our fellow bloggers at Engadget have gotten their hands on the Blade laptop from Razer (the very first commercial fruits of that "Switchblade" concept seeded so long ago), and the unit gets some high marks, despite some significant flaws. The worst issue with the laptop seems to be the audio (the built-in speakers are so bad that Engadget suspected their unit was broken somehow), but in general the problem with the Blade seems that it's tuned for a mix of portability and performance, which means neither gets to be perfect.

Yes, the Blade is sleek and super thin for a PC laptop, but it trades on that build ~~by being a "gaming" unit that doesn't play StarCraft 2 on its highest settings perfectly~~. (see update) For the sticker price of $2,799, Razer traded a little too much performance for the admittedly impressive form factor.

But while Engadget doesn't recommend the laptop wholeheartedly, the site does praise the Blade's "bright and delectably tactile" LED buttons. The article surmises we'll see those types of controls again soon, either in Razer hardware, or units from other device manufacturers.

Update: Engadget has discovered that they didn't have the latest drivers for the graphics card, and with those, apparently Skyrim runs much better. Engadget is working on updated benchmarks for all of the Blade's performance aspects.

Reader Comments (34)

Want to blow $3,000 on a laptop. Buy this;

http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/21/origin-pc-launches-new-3d-gaming-laptop-two-graphics-cards-for/

@xiLeShadow

Up to 1 hour of battery life!

I lol'd. Probably on powersaver while playing solitare.

"nd the unit gets some high marks, despite some significant flaws. The worst issue with the laptop seems to be the audio (the built-in speakers are so bad that Engadget suspected their unit was broken somehow)"

I can deal with that O_O

"a "gaming" unit that doesn't play StarCraft 2 or Skyrim on their highest settings perfectly."

I can deal with that o_o

"For the sticker price of $2,799"

CHECK PLEASE

@Runed the article is not really quoted correctly.

While after-work Starcraft II matches cranked just shy of ultimate posed no problem (with framerates consistently in the high forties to fifties,)

and

[Update: Fresh drivers from NVIDIA drastically improved performance for Skyrim, enabling the game to run on the GPU instead of integrated graphics

@Hatcherh I got the same update recently myself, and I understand the point you're trying to make, but in my opinion, for almost $3,000, it should run Starcraft III on Ultra.

Of course I exaggerate, but that price tag tells me this is a top-of-the-line machine. For a machine that costs that much, it shouldn't need updated drivers to run those games on ultra. A $3,000 computer, laptop or not, should eat those game for breakfast right out of the box.

Don't get me wrong, I've gotten much better performance after the most recent driver, but for the $ I'd have to drop, getting a slight increase in performance doesn't outweigh what I'd ostensibly be paying for a laptop that looks (admittedly) badass.

@Runed
"For a machine that costs that much, it shouldn't need updated drivers to run those games on ultra."

well, you know, it doesn't matter if you have the greatest hardware in Earth and payed 50,000 bucks for it, if the OS doesn't know how to operate that hardware, you'll just have a piece of junk there. Thus the importance of drivers, and more so, updated drivers.

@Runed Even 3000 bucks can't guarantee to run a game from the future on ultra. ;)

I have to admit that's a really nice looking laptop. But there's no way I'm forking over nearly $3,000 for it without winning the lottery.

@Faceless Troll - Even after winning the lottery, I think I could find something better to spend 3 G's on.

Like a gilded statue version of myself.

The actual story reads, and was corrected by Engadget...

"While after-work Starcraft II matches cranked just shy of ultimate posed no problem (with framerates consistently in the high forties to fifties,) we can't say the same about newer titles which invoke strain, even after you reel in the visuals significantly. While playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, for example, we reeled graphical settings all the way back to medium to make the game passably playable -- we're talking frame rates in the high twenties at full resolution [Update: Fresh drivers from NVIDIA drastically improved performance for Skyrim, enabling the game to run on the GPU instead of integrated graphics (despite us specifying GPU-only in the Optimus Control panel). We'll have updated FPS numbers for you shortly]. With something like Battlefield 3 on the other hand, we had more luck, eking out more respectable mid-30FPS from medium settings, again at full resolution."

Heathcliff Hatcher
Director of Marketing
Razer USA

@Hatcherh

Yes, but will it blend?

@Butmac I haven't checked. But I don't want to blend mine.

Heathcliff

@Hatcherh

I bet THQ has a lot of uDraw tablets they'd sure like to blend

There are so many better laptops out there to buy for that money for gaming. Sure they won't look as sleek and pretty, but we can't have everything.

Can't really find a worse spot to spend your 3k on except some Apple products.

@Altrix

actually the only apple computers that cost that much are the Mac Pros and those are really nice and dependable

looks hot. now where can i win one?

There have been other LED keyboards similar to this before, but they're painfully expensive. I'm looking forward to the day when they're affordable.

I'd actually be really happy if one even just came in a form similar to the n52te (http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=390404). Combining that concept with LED keys seems wonderful.

It can't play SCII on ultra for $2800? I just bought a used ASUS laptop that can do that for $250....

Can someone tell me what the point of this laptop is? It's not even worth it for a millionaire, it would be cheaper to actually pay someone to carry around a laptop with good specs for you.

@trinica What ASUS? pray tell?=]

@iSiX
It's a G72gx

For $3k you can get a reasonable PC, PS3 and Xbox or PC, Androids and a handphone.

Christ. I bought a Samsung R525. It has a Quad Core, ATI 4200 onboard and 6 gb of ram, I can max damn near anything for $550 (Canadian)

@(Unverified)

Thinking the same thing, this isn't much better than the HP pavilion I bought with a quad core AND dual graphics (6620 + 6750), which only set me back 550$, for another $2200 I would think this thing should just kick fanny. I don't care if it is slim and super portable if I am buying a GAMING laptop. Maybe razer should have aimed for the apple market, they would love this thing.

Alienware. That is all.

@whylekat

iBuyPower says "haha."

@whylekat Alienware? lol. Pay twice as much for half the performance!

all their shit is too high

Wow. that is way too expensive.

http://g.images.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/15077494.jpg

well, that's the cost of having a sleek 0.8 inch laptop: you get a GT555M graphs card, which at best is just a mediocre card. You won't run any graphics intensive game in max, ever.

Even if it did actually have amazing specs and I had the money, I wouldn't get it.

Don't know about you, but I don't want to carry 30 $100 bills around in a delicate, breakable form.

While it looks great and sounds pretty cool- that price was an instand no sale for me.

It does look stunning, but my next computer purchase will be a tower. I've been gaming on a laptop for years now, and i want to step up to a graphical powerhouse, but as cheaply as possible. Gaming laptops are too expensive and harder to upgrade.

Engadget evaluates Razer Blade performance

Reader Comments (34)

Posted: Feb 22nd 2012 10:51PM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 8:15PM yoshiru said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2012 10:52PM Runed said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2012 11:17PM Hatcherh said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 12:24AM Runed said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 9:29AM DarkSonata said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 11:45AM hotstew said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2012 10:52PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:58AM BananaBoat said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2012 11:06PM Hatcherh said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2012 11:13PM Butmac said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2012 11:19PM Hatcherh said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2012 11:24PM Butmac said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2012 11:33PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2012 11:48PM Altrix said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 11:14AM eat it said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2012 11:49PM takahami said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 12:36AM Softserve said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 12:54AM trinica said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:06AM iSiX said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:10AM trinica said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 12:58AM Dol said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 1:07AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 1:33AM Papaspud said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 1:47AM whylekat said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 7:35AM Apakal said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 11:54AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 2:14AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 5:11AM shedi football said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 7:48AM MythosMinion said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 10:10AM DarkSonata said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 3:49PM bunktacular said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 7:16PM Duke said

Posted: Feb 23rd 2012 9:55PM vrplumber said

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